Help Desk Portal

In this section:

About the Help Desk Portal

The Help Desk Portal is a browser based interface that allows IT Support to process an immediate configuration change request. The immediate configuration change requests are as a result of your endpoint users attempting to use a file or process that is prevented by their existing Application Manger configuration. The Portal is accessed from the following URL and used to generate a response code that will allow the configuration change to occur once the response code is entered by the user.

http://<MachineName>/OnDemand

The machine name is that of the endpoint on which the service is deployed.

The Help Desk Portal consists of two tabs, access to which is determined by the roles you have assigned to members of your IT Support team:

  • Config Requests - This tab is used to generate the response code when an endpoint user contacts IT Support to request an immediate change to a configuration. The Help Desk Operator asks the endpoint user for all the details required to fill in the fields relevant to their request together with their request code.

    When the endpoint user is relaying the information relating to their change request to the Help Desk, they are to provide the details as presented on their screen. If the endpoint user’s dialog has “--Not Available--” for the Manufacturer, the Help Desk operator must leave their corresponding Manufacturer field blank.

  • Administration - Use this tab to add or remove roles assigned to IT Support. This tab also provides administrators with the facility to change the shared key.

Although the shared key can be changed any time a new configuration is created, it is recommended that you do not do this because it can adversely affect performance.

Help Desk Portal Roles

Two portal job roles can be assigned to users in IT Support: Help Desk Administrator and Help Desk Operator. When your selected IT Users logs in to the portal using their Windows or Domain credentials, they are automatically redirected to the page on the Help Desk Portal associated with their assigned role.

Help Desk Administrators (HDAs)

The Help Desk Administrator role grants the selected user the privileges to perform the following tasks within the portal:

  • Add or remove Users or Groups to the list of Help Desk Administrators.
  • Add or remove Users or Groups to the list of Help Desk Operators
  • Upload a new shared key

Help Desk Operators (HDOs)

The Help Desk Operator role allows the selected user to grant a configuration change and provide an activation code, following the endpoint user successfully answering a number of questions as specified in the Help Desk Portal.

By default, there are no users with the Help Desk Operators role automatically selected. Select the users by logging into the Portal as a Help Desk Administrator and assign the Roles.

Help Desk Portal Configuration

Use the Administration tab on the Portal to configure the shared key, add additional Help Desk Administrators and Help Desk Operators. As the Administrator, you are automatically assigned the Help Desk Administrator role as you are in the Local Administrator Group or a Domain Administrator. Both the Config Requests tab and the Administration tab are available.

When the roles are assigned and the selected users access the Help Desk Portal, they will be prompted to enter their Windows Login credentials. The credentials contain details of the assigned role and open the Portal according to the privilege level granted to the user.

Users with membership in the BUILTIN\Administrators group, have Administrator access to the Help Desk Portal. This access is implicit and cannot be changed, therefore the BUILTIN\Administrators group does not appear in the list of users or groups with access.

Amending the Shared Key

As a Help Desk Administrator, you can amend the existing shared key using the Shared Key field.

The shared key must match in both the Application Control Console and the Help Desk Portal. If the shared keys do not match, a response code cannot be created and configuration changes will not be authorized for deployment to the user’s endpoint.

Any change made to the Shared key is logged under audit number 9040.

Assigning the Administrative User Role

Use the Add User link to find and select the additional administrative users or remove an existing administrator by highlighting the username in the list and clicking Delete. The user will not be removed from your organization’s Active Directory but will instead be removed from the list of Help Desk Portal Administrators.

Assigning the Help Desk Operator Role

Select which users are to be granted the Help Desk Operators role. Use the Add User link to find and select your operators or remove them from your list by using the Delete button.

Help Desk Portal Request Logging

Application Control raises auditing events for Policy Change Request events performed on Application Manager Web Services, such as when a user logs on to the Help Desk Portal or when an administrator authorizes a Help Desk Operator. The following events are raised to the local event log of the server that is hosting Application Manager Web Services:

Event ID Description
9039 Help Desk User logon is successful.
9040 Shared key has been modified.
9041 Help Desk response code has been generated.
9042 Authorized Help Desk User has been added.
9043 Authorized Help Desk User has been added.
9044 Authorized Help Desk User information has been updated.
9045 Help Desk User logoff is successful.
9046 Help Desk User logon failed
9047 Help Desk failed to get shared key.
9048 Help Desk failed to generate response code.
9049 Help Desk User authorization was unsuccessful.
9050 Help Desk failed to check local members of Administrators group.

View Help Desk Portal Request Events

  1. On the server hosting Application Manager Web Services, open Event Viewer.
  2. In Event Viewer, expand Applications and Service Logs.
  3. Select the AppSense log.

Event Viewer lists the AppSense events in the center pane.

Related topics

Policy Change Requests

Trusted Ownership

Extension Filtering

Application Termination

Message Settings

Archiving

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